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Tulsa-Based Nordam Forges Partnership with China Airlines

Matt Trotter
/
KWGS

Tulsa-based Nordam finalized a move Monday to boost its operations in the Asia-Pacific region.

Nordam and China Airlines are teaming up to build a maintenance and repair facility in Taipei, Taiwan. Nordam Vice-Chairman T. Hastings Siegfried said it’s rare for an engineering firm to strike this sort of partnership with a large carrier, but it’s a good opportunity.

"As we expand outside of the U.S., that’s going to mean that we need to be able to support more component repairs, engineering services, supply chain, purchasing of parts, so there will also be an economic impact to Tulsa," Siegfried said.

The partnership will mean more jobs in Tulsa, but Nordam officials did not specify how many. The partnership will do more than expand Nordam’s presence in Asia.

"With the new technologies of the aircraft — like the 787, A350 and the 777 — we’ll have direct access to the China Airlines fleet to do repair and maintenance and develop more capabilities," Siegfried said.

The two companies will break ground on Nordam Asia sometime next year. China Airlines is Taiwan’s largest carrier, and Chairman Nuan-Hsuan Ho said through an interpreter the growing Taiwanese aerospace sector will learn a lot from this partnership.

"With the extensive technology know-how from Nordam and the very well-established maintenance capabilities from China Airlines, I believe that both companies, joined together, we will make it a great success in the Asia-Pacific region," Ho said.

The Nordam Asia maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Taipei will eventually have around 100 workers.

Matt Trotter joined KWGS as a reporter in 2013. Before coming to Public Radio Tulsa, he was the investigative producer at KJRH. His freelance work has appeared in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC and CNN.